RSSHoobastank’s New Album: Who the Hell Cares?
Jan 27
Music album review Comments Off
The minute I started playing Hoobastank’s new album For(n)ever, I wanted to turn it off. The lead track, My Turn is such turgid unoriginal crap, I almost did. “When it’s gonna be my turn? Yesterday I learned from, tomorrow’s uncertain. So why can’t I just make my turn today?” I don’t even need to stick my finger down my throat to vom that one back up.
While they might have struck double-platinum with The Reason, if anything For(n)ever just proves it was a fluke. The music here is juvenile, generic, fit for the Jonas Brothers and not nearly as slick. This is just a bunch of friends jamming in the garage, dreaming of being a famous rock band. Except here’s the catch: somehow they are a famous rock band.
The worst tracks here are just mediocre riffs paired with Doug Robb’s painfully scratchy voice (it sounds worse live) and emotionally retarded lyrics “I can’t wait forever to know if we’re together” he emotes in Sick of Hanging On. And all the songs sound monotonously the same. “There’s something I need to say its growing everyday things are going to change,” Robb declares on Who the Hell am I. Who the hell cares?
There isn’t much more to comment on since I hated virtually every track, so I will tell you what I liked about this album. The last track. Yup, I made it all the way to the bottom of the list and found the gem Gone, Gone, Gone. It’s got some crackling energy that’s otherwise missing from For(n)ever and lyrics not so obviously written by an fourteen-year old struggling with puberty. It’s not a saving grace by any stretch, but at least it convinced me to listen to the album through to the end.
